Blazin' Squad

Infobox musical artist
Name = Blazin' Squad


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Born = 2001
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Genre = Pop, Hip-Hop
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Years_active = 2002–2006
2008-
Label = EastWest Records (UK)
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Current_members =
Past_members = Flava Plat'num Strider Freek Krazy Tommy-B Melo-D Spike-E Reepa Kenzie
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Blazin' Squad were a 10-piece UK pop-rap vocal band. Heavily influenced by New York gangster rapper culture, they enjoyed moderate success in the UK, achieving 6 consecutive Top 10 hits, including a UK Number One single 'Crossroads', a cover version of the Bone Thugs 'N Harmony original. They recorded and released 2 studio albums, their debut 'In The Beginning' went gold in the UK, whilst their follow-up 'Now Or Never' failed to reach the UK Top 40 Album Chart. After Kenzie, Strider and Flava left the group and set up Friday Hill in 2005, Blazin' Squad released the single 'All Night Long' with members Spike-E, Plat'num, Reepa and Melo-D, this single failed to chart in the UK Top 40.

Original members

As eleven of them MC, they each chose themselves an MC name and the other chose a DJ name:

* MC Spike- E - real name Samuel David Foulkes
* MC Reepa - real name Stuart Baker
* MC Strider - real name Musso Omer
* MC Krazy - real name Lee Bailey
* MC Freek - real name Ollie Georgiou
* MC Melo-D - real name Chris McKeckney
* MC Kenzie - real name James MacKenzie. Kenzie was the runner up in series 3 of "Celebrity Big Brother" in January 2005
* MC Plat'num - real name Marcell Sommerville. Changed his name to Plat'num when Blazin' squad split up. MC Plat'num was runner-up in Channel 4's TV show "The Games"
* MC Flava - real name James Murray
* DJ Tommy B - real name Tom Beasley. Appeared in a line-up on Never Mind the Buzzcocks in February 2008
* MC Ding Dong - real name Dan King. He was the one who stood in the background making the X signs in the song "Crossroads"Mc Cod Fillet

History

Early days

All of the ten members grew up in Chingford, London and attended Highams Park School. The group made a demo at a studio for £200 called "Standard Flow". The demo was released to pirate radio stations under their own record label, Weighty Plates. After EastWest Records heard the track on radio, Blazin' Squad were signed a legitimate record deal.

Breakthrough and debut album

DJ Tommy-B chose to cover a song called "Crossroads", which was originally recorded by Bone Thugs-N-Harmony as "Tha Crossroads" in 1996. They used the chorus of the original song and wrote their own MC verses. The track was released as their first single once they left school at the ages of 16, where they also had a history of academic success.Fact|date=July 2008 "Crossroads" went straight into the UK Singles Chart at number 1 in August 2002. During their short time of 2 years together, the group achieved 6 consecutive UK Top 10 hits, however they faced a lot of criticism. Their rap skills were not taken seriously by the British media, sidelining them to a younger audience. Despite this, their debut album 'In The Beginning' achieved gold satus in the UK and spawned 2 further UK Top 10 hits, 'Love On The Line' which reached number 6 and a double a-side single 'Reminisce/Where The Story Ends' which reached number 8 in February 2003.

The group were popular with commercial radio gigs and roadshows as well as pre-teen pop-music magazines such as 'Top Of The Pops' and 'Smash Hits'.

Further success and "Now or Never"

The group achieved further chart success in 2003, with 2 UK Top 5 chart hits. 'We Just Be Dreamin' reached number 3 in July 2003, whilst 'Flip Reverse' reached number 2 in November. 'Flip Reverse' was used to re-launch the BBC's 'Top Of The Pops'. A special performance was recorded outside Television Centre with 100 or so hooded back-up dancers. Despite the chart success with their singles, they failed to match it with their second album 'Now Or Never', which failed to reach the UK Top 40 album chart. A live recording of a concert in Liverpool was released for Christmas 2003. However, it failed to re-ignite the flagging sales of their second album, nor did a follow-up single 'Here 4 One', which peaked at number 6 in the UK, during early 2004. The group also completed a sold-out UK 21-date tour in 2003. The tour was managed by successful rap touring promoter mogul Aaron Hill. He has a hand in promotional internet videos with dizzie rascal currently.

Decline in popularity

2004 was quiet for the group, until January 2005 saw Kenzie appear on Channel 4's 'Celebrity Big Brother', finishing in second place. The original Blazin' Squad split shortly after. Kenzie went on to form Friday Hill with 2 other Blazin' Squad members. Friday Hill's music was more pop-based and different in vein to the music of Blazin' Squad. They released 2 singles in the UK, 'Baby Goodbye' which peaked at number 5 on the Official UK Singles chart in November 2005, as well as 'One More Night Alone' which reached number 13 in February 2006. They also released an album 'Times Like These', which failed to chart.

Blazin' Squad did make a brief return to the UK charts in October 2006, but as a four-piece. The single released was a summer-sounding 'All Night Long', which reached a disappointing number 54 on the Official UK Singles Chart. The group expressed their disappointment via their official MySpace account:

cquote2|Hi hows it going!! We would just like to thank all the people that DID go and buy our single, we're not happy with where it charted but it is so hard to promote nowadays as there is no pop TVs anymore and radio don't seem to like us at the minute (blame it on the promotion)!! We got on all the ones we could hopefully we can do another single. Thanks for all the support you have given us !!

Take care...

Blazin' Squad"

After this disappointment, the group split and Blazin' Squad was left to rest for the time being. There have been petitions and Myspace pages set up to re-unite Blazin' Squad again, it is known that certain Blazin' Squad members are in talks to do a reunion tour in 2008.

Discography

Albums

*Download only album available via fansite

ingles

Other songs

"Standard Flow" Number 99 UK [2001] (Promotional single)

Criticism

The band were notoriously criticised, even after the release of their second album, as they were seen to be pioneers of the chav culture, and some said that they were to So Solid Crew what S Club Juniors were to their senior counterparts, S Club. They were also seen to only appeal to the young population of the UK.

plit

The split occurred in 2005, shortly after Kenzie's appearance on "Big Brother". MC Kenzie, MC Flava and MC Strider started their own band (preferring to be called Kenzie, James and Mus respectively), known as Friday Hill. The trio released their debut single, "Baby Goodbye" in October 2005. Blazin' Squad did consist of Marcel (MC Plat’num), Stuart (MC Reepa), Sam (MC Spike-E) & Chris (MC Melo-D). They decided to call it a day in 2006. Lee (Krazy) has gone solo and is currently working on his solo album in the US called the 'Lee Bailey project'.

External links

* [http://www.myspace.com/blazinsquadofficialsite Blazin' Squad's official Myspace]
* [http://www.fridayhill.com Friday Hill's official site]
* [http://www.myspace.com/fridayhillofficialsite Friday Hill's official Myspace]